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Bin Laden likely to be in 'safe' Pakistan

The Scotsman - Top Stories - Bin Laden likely to be in 'safe' Pakistan

MIKE COLLETT-WHITE IN KABUL AND AMIR ZIA IN KARACHI

AL-QAEDA leaders, including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are more likely to be in Pakistan than Afghanistan, the United States general leading the hunt for terrorists in the region said yesterday.

Lieutenant-General David Barno, who commands 18,200 soldiers hunting Islamic militants in Afghanistan, was speaking a day after Pakistani troops killed Amjad Hussain Farooqi, the al-Qaeda leader wanted for failed assassination attempts on Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf.

Security forces in Pakistan yesterday arrested several more suspected Islamic militants while Mr Musharraf welcomed the news of Farooqi’s killing.

Speaking from his heavily guarded US military compound in Kabul, Lt-Gen Barno said while most al-Qaeda operatives were in Pakistan, the group was working with remnants of the Taleban regime to destabilise Afghanistan’s presidential elections due to be held next month.

Explaining that there was no formal command structure linking the militant groups, he added: "The al-Qaeda elements here are helping to enable Taleban efforts to disrupt the Afghan political process.

"They clearly are facilitators for franchise terrorist organisations here as well as many other places in the world."

Lt-Gen Barno praised Pakistan, a key ally in the US’s war on terror, for its crackdown on foreign militants in remote tribal regions bordering Afghanistan and helping to capture al-Qaeda operatives hiding in cities and towns.

Dozens of al-Qaeda-linked militants have been captured or killed in Pakistan in recent months, including Farooqi, who was also wanted in connection with the killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

US-led forces in Afghanistan, by contrast, had probably not captured or killed a top al-Qaeda personality inside Afghanistan since 2002, Lt-Gen Barno said.

"We see relatively little evidence of senior al-Qaeda personality figures being [in Afghanistan] because they can feel more protected by their foreign fighters in remote areas inside Pakistan," he said.

"[Al-Qaeda] do a little bit of back-and-forth across the border, but all these terrorist groups recognise they are at great risk when they come into Afghanistan."

Remnants of Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamic regime, ousted in a US-led war in 2001 for failing to hand over Bin Laden after the 11 September attacks, have vowed to disrupt the landmark 9 October presidential poll which the US-backed incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is tipped to win.

Lt-Gen Barno said he is braced for a "spike" in violence as the country’s first presidential election approaches.

More than 1,000 people have died in Afghanistan, mostly in militant attacks, since last August.

Pakistan has more than 70,000 troops in its tribal belt, and complaints by US officials of a lack of commitment by Islamabad to prevent Taleban and allied Islamic militants from crossing into Afghanistan to fight an insurgency have annoyed Mr Musharraf.

The Pakistani president welcomed news of Farooqi’s death yesterday.

"We’ve eliminated one of the very major sources of terrorist threat," he said during an official visit to the Netherlands. "Not only was he involved in the attacks on me but also in attacks elsewhere and terrorist attacks elsewhere in the country.

"So a very big terrorist has been eliminated."

Mr Musharraf also said interrogation and intelligence reports suggested Bin Laden was still alive.

Farooqi was killed when security forces besieged his hideout in Nawabshah on Sunday after a phone-tap operation confirmed his presence there. Two Pakistani companions were captured and are under interrogation.

Brigadier Javed Cheema, an interior ministry official, said subsequent arrests were made in several parts of the country.

Police sources said at least three men were detained in the Sindh town of Sukkar, about 240 miles north of Karachi.

Farooqi, who had a price of 20 million rupees (£193,000) on his head, was considered the main Pakistani planner of two failed assassination attempts on Mr Musharraf, including a suicide assault on his motorcade on 25 December last year, which killed 15 people and wounded 45.

"He was the main local link of al-Qaeda," an official said.

Farooqi’s controller was believed to be Abu Faraj Farj, a Libyan who has emerged as a leading figure in al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

Farooqi was also one of seven men wanted in the 2002 kidnapping and killing of Mr Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Farooqi’s death prompted authorities in Karachi to issue a red alert at foreign missions, government offices and places of worship.

"He was among the top terror masterminds," said Karachi police chief Tariq Jameel. "We have put security on alert to face any possible reaction to his killing."

Fayyaz Leghari, a deputy inspector general of police, said Farooqi had connections with foreign militants and was the main organiser and facilitator of major terror attacks in Pakistan.

September 27, 2004 at 09:54 PM in Al Qaeda | Permalink | TrackBack (4) | Top of page | Blog Home